About

There Are No Children Here

The streets of Chicago have always been riddled with gang violence and poverty in African American communities. Dominic A. Pacyga’s novel Chicago: A Biography explores the obstacles faced by blacks during the evolving of Chicago through accounts of public housing, street gangs, education, and juvenile delinquency. The film There Are No Children Here tells the story of two boys growing up in a housing project in Chicago infested with crime and a shortage of money, guidance, and tranquility. Knowledge of the struggles of the residents of Chicago, in particular African Americans, is essential to the history of the city. Were these struggles possibly dreams deferred? Both Pacyga’s novel and the film There Are No Children Here convey the trials and tribulations of the African Americans who made their homes in Chicago years ago. However, Pacyga displays a bird’s eye view while the film provides a front row seat to African American struggles in the evolving Chicago.

The 1993 film There Are No Children Here explores the lives of Lafayette and Pharaoh Rivers, two young African American boys growing up in the Henry Horner Homes project in Chicago. Living off of government benefits and an alcoholic father, the boys lack a stable domestic environment. The world outside of their crammed apartment is also far from inviting. Having seen his older brother behind bars and two of his closest friends shot dead due to gang violence, Lafayette becomes engulfed into the corrupt world of street gangs in attempts to ease the pain of being without money, an acceptable home, and friends. Lafayette promises his younger brother Pharaoh that they would not have to worry about gangs. Hit with reality, Lafayette realizes that he is one of the gangsters tainting the city that many people call home. This promise pulls Lafayette out of the gang scene and into the vow of getting out of the cruel streets of Chicago.

In Chicago: A Biography, Pacyga discusses the skyrocket in the population of...

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...Alex Kotlowitz's book, There are No ChildrenHere, is a story about two boys, Pharaoh
and Lafeyette Rivers growing in the late 1980's in Henry Horner, a housing project in Chicago. The boys try to retain their youth while they see constant gang violence, death of close friends, their brother in jail and their dad struggling with a drug addiction.
In Horner, there are two gangs that claim it as their turf, and the Rivers family is constantly ducking from shots of gunfire there. They live in an overcrowded apartment with leaky facets, heating problems and animal carcasses in the basement. The boys' mother, LaJoe, tries to keep them away from gangs and violence since her eldest children fell to the harsh reality of the neighborhood. The children constantly have to protect themselves from danger and quickly lost their childhood along the way. LaJoe even has to purchase burial insurance for her children because she fears the worst due to the severity of Horner.
The boys find it difficult to have friends because most of the other children are involved in drugs and gangs. Pharaoh
desperately tries to cling to his innocence and is very conscientious in his studies. Unfortunately, Lafeyette made friends with a mischievous boy named Rickey and was lured into a gang.
There are many problems in the neighborhood and even with LaJoe's positive and upbeat attitude, she cannot move her...

...“Chicago Slums: The Other America”
"Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate. (Anonymous)” In the 1980 Chicago slums this quote couldn’t be truer. The slums were/are a terrible place for not just children, but everyone to live. The Henry Horner homes in particular are full of death, drugs, and poverty. This may not seem like the greatest place for children to be raised, but for some, they know nothing different. The constant gang trouble, drug trafficking, and hiding from stray bullets are an everyday occurrence for people living in these government housing complexes. The devastation is a never-ending cycle. The parents get into drugs and violence, and the children have no choice but to imitate their parents and everyone around them as they grow up. The end of the cycle is unseen for most, but for some, such as Lajoe Rivers that cycle will end with her youngest five children.
“But you know, there are no childrenhere. They’ve seen too much to be children. (Lajoe)”
The plot begins in the summer of 1987, the boys, Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers are enjoying their time near the tracks searching for snakes. Here, the boys could be children. They could let their imaginations run wild and they could just take a break from the horrible life they have waiting at home. Lafeyette and Pharoah are a part of large...

...While I read There Are No ChildrenHere by Alex Kotlowitz, I had literally had
to keep reminding myself that these children and all of these people are real. The things
that happened to Pharoah and Lafeyette were things that I could never imagine
happening, much less at their young age.
The young children of Horner would make a few extra dollars “offering to watch
people’s cars if they parked on the side streets….” This shows the lack of safety present
in the children’s lives. They spent their early childhood dodging bullets and joining gangs
to, ironically enough, protect them. They looked up to an infamous head drug dealer
named Jimmie Lee. Jimmie Lee’s “very presence and activities ruled their lives.” At the
same time, this criminal had sympathy for residents at Henry Horner and was a
respectable person. He showed this by one day telling an abusive father, “you don’t give
no kid disrespect.” To me, it is too bad that the only good role model in these kids’ lives
is a drug dealer.
The most astounding part of this book is Pharoah’s drive. Lafeyette had similar,
but he was very impressionable by the influence older gang members had on him. This is
shown by when Pharoah’s friend, Ricky, suggested they take some videos from a video
store. Ricky had a bad reputation and was affiliated with a few gangs. Pharoah told his
brother, “let’s leave them, let’s go...

...There Are No ChildrenHere by Alex Kotlowitz chronicles the true story of two brothers growing up in the Henry Horner projects of Chicago over a two year period. Set in the Horner Homes public housing district of Chicago, Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers, their mother and siblings struggle to survive gun battles, gang influences, over-zealous police officers, and overburdened and mismanaged bureaucracies to simply survive.
The story begins in the summer of 1987. Nine year old Pharoah and his brother Lafeyettte, twelve, venture towards the railroad tracks that run from Chicago's west side to the western suburbs and downtown Chicago. They join six friends and pair up. Pharoah partners with his younger cousin Leonard Anderson, nicknamed Porkchop, a shy but nervous boy. Lafeyette partners with his good friend James Howard whom he grew up with in the same building in the Henry Horner projects
There are No ChildrenHere follows the lives of two young brothers, Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers, who live in the Henry Horner Homes, one of Chicago's subsidized housing projects in the inner city. Lafeyette and Pharoah, aged 11 and 9 years at the start of the book in 1987, live with their mother, along with their many siblings periodically, and rely on welfare and federal assistance. The book depicts them deprived of most luxuries and in constant struggle to survive. The burden of their struggle falls on Lafeyette's shoulders as he...

...Dixon 1
Critical Analysis Paper:
There Are No ChildrenHere
Arena L. Dixon
YNL 290
Murray State University
Dr. Roger Weis
November 2009
Dixon 2
Henry Horner Projects was the stage in the lives of the Rivers’ family as it was for many of the people who lived there. It was like its’ very existence dictated the lives of the occupants. Families raised their families there and those children grew up to raise their children there too and it was commonplace. If that wasn’t enough the families often became true victims of their environment by getting involved in the lifestyle that was connected to real inner city living.
The subject matter of the book shows the conditions of poor people in the subsidized housing projects of Chicago, Illinois. The Rivers’ are members of a poor family. The family lives in Henry Horner Homes, a subsidized housing project in Chicago. The family relies on welfare and federal assistance for support. They cannot afford most luxuries and many necessities; therefore, life is an ongoing struggle to survive. Many adults and children reside in the family's household. These extra family members further strain and drain the family's resources and cramp their living room in the family's apartment. LaJoe has eight children, all living in the apartment: LaShawn, Weasel, Terence, Lafayette, Pharoah, Tammie, Tiffany, and Timothy. LaShawn has three...

...poverty, gangs, drugs and crimes. Many young Americans also drop out of school at a young age to either support their own children or help support their families, which makes it more difficult to achieve the American Dream due to a lack of money and education. In There are No ChildrenHere, by Alex Kotlwitz the characters have a difficult time achieving the American Dream because they become young parents, abuse drugs, and become involved with gangs.
One reason it is difficult for characters in this book to achieve the American Dream is that many of them are becoming parents as a young teen. Lajoe Rivers, mother of Pharoah, Lafeyette, and 5 other children, financially supports her family alone, with occasional help from the government and her husband, Paul. Lajoe struggles to provide adequate food and clothing for the children, usually living month to month on the money she receives from financial aid, but manages to get by with the help of financial assistance. Lajoe’s financial struggles are partly a result of her becoming a teenage parent. For example, many characters, such as Lajoe, had their first child at age 14, eventually having large families that would be rather difficult to support even for a middle class family with two parents, let alone a single mother on welfare. Many of these young parents drop out of school to take care of their children, ensuring the poverty cycle will...

...There Are No ChildrenHere is the true story of two African American brothers growing up in a violence plagued Chicago housing project called Henory Hornor projects. Lafeyette and Pharoah are forced to survive a life surrounded by violence, gangs, drugs, racism, and horrors that should never befall a child's eyes. Through these dehumanizing conditions they are changed from innocent children to adults. There is no innocence to he found in their urban struggle.
Lafeyette and Pharoah struggle to hold on to each other in a feeble attempt to cling to their childhood purity, which is lost in this urban jungle. "There are no childrenhere" their mother says, "They've seen to much to be children." In this hostile environment they are forced to endure struggles that would be difficult for an adult to undertake such as their dad's drug abuse, to being shot at in drive by shooting. How could a child still be a child when they are afraid of being shot if they go outside? How could a child remain a child when he or she is whiteness to drug abuse. These children are forced to grow up at an extremely exhilarated rate in order to cope with the situations they are continually exposed to. The children of this so-called other America are drowning in a sea of hardships, the violence slowly consuming them.
Racism plays a great role in this book as well. This book...

...There Are No Children
We all have a have different perspectives of something. In the book “There Are No ChildrenHere”. Alex Kotlowitz emphasizes the phrase the “The other side of America.” The author opposes to
the stereotypes of families living in the projects, inner-city schools, and the drug dealers.
In the beginning, Kotlowitz demonstrates the boys innocently playing around the train tracks.
But when the hear the train coming, the children freeze, run away in fear or are in tears. The children
lays on the ground very still. One of them says “keep quiet.” (6) The boys heard rumors that the
commuters on the train has guns and will shoot. While the commuters heard the same rumors and avoid
the windows. Even though, the suburban commuters are just trying to get to work. Kotlowitz illustrates
that both groups considers that each one is a threat due to the ignorant fabrications. The mistaken
conceptions they have with each other is the real enemy.
We have preconceive notions of families living in the projects. We believe it's the people that
reside there is the reason why their environment is so atrocious. But the residents are not truly the one
to blame. The low income housing project was meant to be a positive “low-rent housing units
nationwide and provide shelter for the less fortunate.” (21) The alderman wanted to build houses for
the poor. But the housing complexes was still...